Nepal

This article was written by Jyoti Bhattarai, Director of WMF Nepal’s home for widows, “Prem Ghar” (Home of Love).

It is disgusting me very much to hear the Nepal government’s finance minister, and his budget speech for the fiscal year 2009/2010 . He has promised to reward widows who are willing to remarry 50,000 Nepali rupees (approx. $650) each. I am very much concerned with the plight of widows in Nepal, and I believe it is a matter of dignity and not of money.

I am committed to protect the rights of widows and to care for those who are discarded without proper care from their families, society and even from the government. I have been involved full time for the last 10 years, working on behalf of widows who have no one in this world to care, love, protect and provide for them everything that they need from a family.

It is very sad to see that widows are not treated respectfully in Nepali society . If they are young either they are raped or they have to work as a slave in someone’s house for a lifetime. Or when they grow old they are forced to go to the street to beg for their livelihood and eventually many even die in the street. Some widows are simply sent out from the home when they are unable to do any more work at home.

Therefore I am led by the vision of the Lord to take care of those widows. I am now taking care of 20-22 widows. 6 of the widows who have no one in this world are staying with my family in one house and sharing the same kitchen.
Widows need respect, love, care and a family environment but just saying that if you marry you will get 50,000 rupees is not enough to solve this problem. Rather they will be manipulated to grab that money from the government and in the end these widows will be in an even more vulnerable situation than before. So widows need love, care and protection.

Jyoti Bhattarai, and the Prem Ghar family